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Knowing More languages means knowing the humanity

Knowing more than one language expands one’s knowledge of culture, traditions of the people of the world we live in.

Knowledge of languages really takes you out of that uni-cultural, uni-traditional box and opens the window of opportunity to exploring the beauty of other peoples’ way of living differently, way of speaking differently, way of thinking differently. As a personal experience, it gives me the ability to understand other people who speak and think different than me. Since language is the only means or tool that human beings use to communicate thoughts, express feelings and understand each other, therefore, advantages of knowing more than one language are many. It gives us the ability to understand better other peoples’ thoughts and feelings with totally a different culture and tradition. Every thought, feeling and cultural traits of a people are embedded with the language of that people. Knowing other peoples’ language means, understanding their thoughts and feelings and what could be more beautiful than this type of human connection with the people of the world.

Every language of the world has its particular grammar rules and sentence structure that may not apply to other languages. Languages may have the same elements or parts of speech but the structure or position of each sentence element may not be the same as the other languages. For the most part, here in this book we will be comparing the sentence structure of Pashto language with that of the English language. I believe such a comparison and break down of sentence structure and all the elements that make up a complete sentence is important.

Sentences in Pashto language consist of the following important parts or elements.

1-Nouns

2-Pronouns

3-Verbs

4-Adjectives

5-Adverbs

6-Prepositions

7-Conjunctions

1-اسم یا نوم(Noun) it is a name of a thing, place, idea, or a person. Both animate and non-animate Nouns in Pashto have gender as male and female. Feminine nouns usually end with the letters ه or ی like کاسه-څوکی-سپینه-وریرهbut there are nouns that do not end with any of these two and still considered as feminine like مور-غوا. In Pashto language it is very important to know the gender of the nouns. The gender of a noun affects the rest of the components in a sentence like adjectives and Verbs. A Masculine or Feminine noun can only have an adjective or a Verb that has the same gender like the noun it is modifying in a sentence.

Examples: کتاب-احمد-څوکی-کړکی

توره څوکی

سپینه کړکی

تور ساعت

سپین کتاب

احمد راغی

جمیله راغله

There are two types of Nouns in Pashto.

a-عام نوم(Common Noun:)

Examples: هلک- کتاب- میز-کور

b- خاص نوم(Proper Noun:)

Examples: احمد-کابل-امریکا-جمیله

2-ضمیر(Pronoun) that which replaces a noun. There are two types of pronouns in Pashto:

a-شخصی ضمایر(Personal Pronouns) These pronouns are used instead of a name of a person in a sentence.

b-داشاری ضمایر(Demonstrative Pronoun) These pronouns are used to point at something or a person.

c-شخصی ضمایر(Personal Pronouns)

شخصی ضمایر

Personal Pronouns

Examples

زه

I

زه احمد یم

I am Ahmad.

ته -تاسو

You

تاسو زما دوست یاست

You are my friend.

هغه

He

هغه یو ښه هلک دی

He is a good boy.

هغوی

They

هغوی زموږ دوستان دی

They are our friends.

هغه

She

هغه یوه انجلۍ ده

She is a girl.

موږ

We

موږ افغانان یو

We are Afghans.

d-داشاری ضمایر(Demonstrative Pronoun)

داشاری ضمایر

مفرد

Demonstrative Pronoun

Singular

داشاری ضمایر

جمع

Demonstrative Pronoun

Plural

دا

This

دا

These

دغه

This

دغه

These

هغه

That

هغه

Those

Examples: دا- دغه-هغه

داکتاب زما دی

This is my book.

دغه قلم ستا دی

This is your pen.

هغه موټر دخالد دی

That is Khalid’s car.

Examples:

داکتابونه زما دی

These are my books.

دغه قلمونه ستا دی

These are your pens.

هغه موټرونه د خالد دی

Those are Khalid’s cars.

دضمایروحا لتونه(Cases of Pronouns)

Pronouns in Pashto have 3 cases, possessive, Subjective, and objective. They can be used as subjects of an action, object of an action or just to show ownership to someone or something in a sentence.

حالتفاعلی

SubjectiveCases

حالتمفعولی

Objective

ملکی حالت

Possessive

زه

I

ما

Me

زما

My

ته -تاسو

You

تاسوته-تاته

You

ستا- ستا سو

Your

هغه

He

هغه

Him

دهغه

His

هغوی

They

هغوی

Them

دهغوئ

Their

هغه

She

هغه

Her

دهغی

Her

موږ

We

موږ

Us

زموږ

Our

a-حالتفاعلی (Subjective)

Examples:

b-حالتمفعولی (Objective)

Examples:

c-ملکی حالت (Possessive)

Examples:

*. Pronouns in Pashto have 3 conditions or states:

a- متکلم ( First Person)

b- مخاطب (Second Person)

c- غایب( Third Person)

3- فعل(Verb) that which shows a state of being, becoming and an action that signifies tense like past, present and future. Pashto Verbs in their Infinitive form end with the letter “ل”

Examples:لیکل – لوستل – کارکول – تلل –کتل - ویل

Types of Verb: Generally we can categorize the Verbs in Pashto as the following:

a-To Be Verbs

b-To Do Verbs

c-To become

To Be Verbs

پښتو

English

دحال زمانه

تیره زمانه

ضمیرونه

Pronouns

Present

Past

یم

وم

زه

I

Am

Was

یا ست

وي

ته -تاسو

You

Are

Were

دی

ؤ

هغه

He

Is

Was

دي

ول

هغوی

They

Are

Were

ده

وه

هغه

She

Is

Was

یو

وو

موږ

We

Are

Were

To Do Verbs:

a-فعل لازمی (Transitive Verb) It is a verb that has a subject and an object in a sentence.

Examples:ماتول–لیکل- خورل-مینځل- ورکول

زه خپل قلم ماتوم

خالد خپل ورور ته خط لیکی

زه ډوډی خورم

b- فعل متعدی (Intransitive Verb) It is a verb that does not have an object. But it is to be noted that there are verbs that can function both as a transitive and intransitive according to the need to of the sentences.

Examples: تلل – لیدل - خبری کول - ماتیدل

زه هلته ځم

هغه کوری

هغوی خبری کوی

ځوکی ماتیږی

Note: The conjugation of the Verbs in Pashto is not like that of English verbs. English language verbs are either regularly conjugated by adding “ED” at the end of the Regular verbs to form past tense. And “S” or “ES” is added to the verbs to form simple present tense. Whereas in Pashto it is a little more complicated and the verbs are conjugated according to the Subject of a verb in a sentence. In order to conjugate verbs in Pashto certain factors or aspects like plurality, Singularity , Masculinity , Femininity , and other cases like, First person, Second Person, Third Person of the Subject (Doer) needs to be considered. Based on these conditions the verbs are conjugated accordingly.

4-صفت(Adjective) That which modifies a noun. Like nouns in Pashto, adjectives also have masculine and feminine genders. Since all nouns have a gender in Pashto therefore, the adjective that modifies the noun must be in the same gender of the noun in a sentence. With a masculine noun we must use the masculine form of that adjective and with a feminine noun a feminine form of the adjective as in examples below.